Peacock OKs nest of legal eagle pilots

'Future Tense,' 'HUB,' 'Lyon's Den' among skeins

There’s order in the Peacock court: NBC has greenlit a slate of lawyer-heavy drama pilots for the 2003-04 season.

Three of the net’s six pilots will have some sort of law-based premise, including projects from Barry Schindel (“Law & Order”), Tony Drazan (“The Negotiator”) and Remi Aubuchon (“From the Earth to the Moon”).

Even the hourlong project from Jeff Rake (“The Street”) and Darren Star (“Sex and the City”) stars Alicia Silverstone as a matrimonial attorney who winds up as a matchmaker.

“We were very interested in the legal venue,” NBC Entertainment prexy Jeff Zucker said. “We think there’s a dearth of legal shows on TV. There’s a lot of cops, not many lawyers.”

Meanwhile, Peacock will also venture outside of the courtroom for pilots from Gary Scott Thompson (“The Fast and the Furious”), Nick Thiel (“Magnum, P.I.”) and Javier Grillo-Marxuach (“Boomtown”).

“Future Tense”– the culmination of Silver Pictures’ three-for-one deal at the net — revolves around an elite law enforcement unit in the future. Show was originally developed last year and rolled to this season.

Thompson is exec producing and writing a Las Vegas-set drama for NBC Studios and DreamWorks (Daily Variety, Oct. 22). Project, which is cast-contingent, will revolve around a casino security expert.

“The Lyon’s Den,” from Aubuchon, is described as an ensemble legal drama set in a mid-sized, century-old law firm. Brad Grey will also exec produce; 20th Century Fox TV and Brad Grey TV are the studios.

Drazan and Schindel, meanwhile, will battle it out for NBC’s sixth drama pilot slot. The network said only one of the two cast-contingent projects will ultimately be piloted.

Drazan’s project, “EDNY,” is an ensemble drama set in New York’s U.S. Attorneys office. Drazan will exec produce and write the show for NBC Studios.